What are special orders?

A special order is a job your shop runs for one named customer. A customer at Fairgreen Golf Co.'s shop wants the merino quarter-zip in XXL navy, which the shelf does not carry. The shop orders it in from Kaimen Knitwear, takes a deposit, and calls him when it arrives.

Special orders live at Selling › Special orders on the web. On the iPhone app they are in the ⇕ menu, for looking a job up at the counter.

Your workspace may use its own word for this; Settings › Terminology shows both.

Why do special orders exist?

Most shops track this kind of job on a paper slip, a note in the till or a spreadsheet one person keeps. The slip knows the customer's name. It rarely knows what the job cost, whether the deposit was taken, or who promised what by when.

A special order keeps all of that on one page. The supplier's bill, the embroidery, the stock you took off the shelf, the deposit and the till sale all add up to three numbers: what the job cost, what is still owed, and what it made.

Because it is shared, whoever is on the counter when the customer rings can answer them. Nobody has to find the person who took the order.

When would you use one?

Whenever the shop agrees to get something for one person and wants to be paid for it:

• A size or colour you do not stock. Pick the product from your Shopify catalog, choose Other size…, and type the size the customer wants.
• Something you do not carry at all. Type in the brand, product, colour and size, plus the rep's style number, so whoever places the order has what they need.
• A staff purchase. Choose A staff order and pick the person on your team.
• A sale already rung up at the register. Start the sale's note with "SPL" and the customer's name, and the special order makes itself. See How to turn a register sale into a special order.

A good special order names the customer, carries a Promise by date and has an owner. That is what lets a colleague pick it up when you are not in.

What does a special order keep track of?

• The item: what the customer wants, how many, the retail price, and the agreed price, with the reason when the two differ.
• The customer: a Shopify customer, a new customer you add, or a member of your team.
• Who and when: an owner and a due date.
• The stage: Quoted, Ordered, Arrived, Delivered, Closed or Cancelled, unless your workspace renamed them.
• The cost: supplier bills, costs you type in, and stock taken off the shelf.
• The money in: payments, till sales, and any balance written off.

From those, each job shows Cost, Paid, Owed and Profit.

What is a special order not?

Use a purchase order instead when you are buying stock for the shelves rather than for one customer. See What are suppliers and purchase orders?. The supplier's bill for a special order can still be attached to the job.

Use a wholesale order instead when you are selling to a dealer or another business with an account. See What is wholesale?.

What do you need first?

• The Special orders module switched on in Settings › Modules, along with Store. It starts on for a multi-brand retailer and off for brands and manufacturers. See How to switch parts of Tideswell on and off.
• Your Shopify store connected, so you can search your catalog and customers. See How to connect your Shopify store.
• View special orders, Create special orders and Edit special orders, which start at member. Recording money needs Record payments on special orders and write off balances, which starts at lead. See How to set who can do what.

Where do you go next?

Start with How to take and track a special order. It covers creating a job, adding its costs, recording the money, moving it through its stages, and looking it up on your phone.

If your shop rings special orders up at a Shopify register, read How to turn a register sale into a special order next. It turns a noted register sale into a special order without anyone typing it twice.